In re Bennington School, Inc.

Outcome: Favorable Vermont Supreme Court Decision

Description: Bennington School, Inc., ("BSI") is a for-profit educational corporation that operates residential programs, including a campus and group homes for adolescents with a variety of emotional and learning disabilities. This case was an appeal from a lower court decision holding that because BSI was primarily a school, its group homes should be treated as part of the school and not as single family residences, thus requiring conditional use permits from each city or town where BSI sought to place them. The Vermont Supreme Court reversed, holding that because BSI's group homes fit the definition of the statute defining such homes as single-family homes (and thus existing as a matter of right in all zoning districts), municipalities could not require conditional use permits. The group homes for the adolescents with disabilities, held the court, had to be treated the same for zoning purposes, as traditional single-family dwellings.